This land, although mountainous and wild, proved to be fecund nourishing its inhabitants, who cultivated the land, with rich products, grapes, citrus fruits, olive oil and honey. The local cuisine is based on pastry foods, the known makarounes, pies and dairy produce, while raki and wine hold a prominent position in the traditional table!
Fresh fish: Many locals work on fishery and supply the taverns with parrotfish, sardines, white sea breams and wreck fish on a daily basis, which are quite common on the island.
Grapes: the rich vineyards of Northern Karpathos produce outstanding grapes, from which the famous wine of the island is produced.
Wine: The wine of Karpathos is of excellent quality, tasty and quite different. The most popular is the demi-sec red wine produced mainly in the highlands of Karpathos, Othos and Volada. The most known grape varieties of the island are athiri (white grape), fokiano (red grape) as well as the Cretan thrapsathiri (white grape) and gaidouria of the Cyclades (another grape variety). The majority of the white varieties are unknown, such as stroggylathiro, karato, kolokithato, kotiko and syriggi.
Cheese: The Karpathian cheeses have a strong flavor and are a key element in the diet of the inhabitants. The most well-known cheese are soft manouli, armyrotyri (salty cheese), which, as indicated by its name, is a very salty hard cheese used by the locals in spaghettis, and meriari (spicy cheese).
Honey: Honey is the product used by the goodwives of Karpathos in their sweets: sousamomelo (sesame and honey), xerotigana and baklavas. Moreover, the thyme-honey is made during summer, the sage-honey during spring and the heather-honey during winter.
Alochorta: small greens usually served as a salad, which grow on cliffs among thorns.
Makarounes: the specialty of the Karpathian gastronomy is makarounes, pasta, like tagliatelle, served with the noted sitaka, a dairy product like yogurt.
Ofto: goat stuffed with rice, haslets and flavorings baked in a wood oven for a whole night.
Dryla: yogurt made of goat's milk usually served with ofto.
Kousoumas: Small bread baked in the oven and left for hours to harden like a rusk.
Lazaros: On Lazarus Saturday all the housewives have prepared round rolls with chestnut in the middle.
Tourtes: Pies with flaky pastry, which look like kourou (wrapped in thick pastry), stuffed with mytzithra and sprinkled with sesame.
Kopeles: Greenpies, whose stuffing varies depending on the season (stuffed with spinach and leek in the winter and with blites and vegetable marrows in the summer).
Gra: A greenpie with thick pastry baked in a tin roasting pan in the wood oven.
Baklavas: The Karpathian baklava is quite special, since it resembles the Cretan diples (fried pastry with honey) and is sprinkled with chestnut crumb.